Spielraum

Spielraum is a German word that can be roughly translated as leeway or leverage.

Senges (2007) notes that the concept of spielraum seems very fitting to describe the phenomenon of giving the steward of a task some flexibility to be able to feel intrinsic motivation and react to changes in the environment.

Also the eminent German philosopher Gadamer (1965), best known for his work on hermeneutics, explained spielraum with the example of the wheel of a bicycle. The wheel is attached to the bike through the axle that is held to the bike’s frame by a nut. In this case he says that it is “important not to tighten the nuts too tightly, else the wheel could not turn. ‘It has to have some play! then he added, ‘ . . . and not too much play, or the wheel will fall off" (Miller, 1996).
 
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